oStylus DOT Launches

After many months of work, the new oStylus DOT is ready. You can check it out on our website at http://oStylus.com, or see it in action in this video.


We are now offering two designs of stylus for capacitive touchscreen devices. Our original oStylus, introduced 18 months ago, was designed primarily as a drawing and painting tool for the iPad and other tablets. The new oStylus DOT is designed primarily as a writing and note-taking tool, but also handles other applications with ease. See our March 8 blog post for more details.

Touchscreen Delay

One of the things we can't control in stylus design is delay or latency in touchscreen systems. Several customers have emailed us saying they thought the drawing point for a stylus should always be right in the centre of the contact area. Unfortunately there is a delay between the actual touch and the appearance of the line on the touchscreen device, particularly apparent when drawing a line quickly.

Microsoft has been researching how significant this is. They have found that with today's touchscreens there is about a 100 millisecond (ms) lag. This happens whether we use a finger or a stylus, and is noticeable when we are quickly sketching curved or zigzag lines – the line appears a few millimeters behind the centre point of the finger or stylus.

Here is the video Microsoft Research posted:
http://youtu.be/vOvQCPLkPt4

They demonstrate in the video that a delay of 1 ms would be ideal. The human eye cannot detect that small a lag, and at that point you "feel like ink is coming from your finger" – a real physical connection with the screen. Unfortunately they estimate this technology may be as much as 10 years away. Until then we have to either put up with the delay, or simply slow down our drawing.

New "DOT" Design for oStylus

We have been working for several months now refining a new and alternate design for a stylus for touchscreen devices. It's called the oStylus DOT. That's DOT as in "dot", because it has a small round contact pad that slides across the screen.

The original oStylus was developed primarily for drawing and painting on tablets such as the iPad. We were thinking about artists and graphic designers who wanted more accuracy and more visibility of the screen than their finger would allow. But we found that a lot of people were primarily interested in note-taking and handwriting on their tablets. Some of the feedback we got suggested that even though the oStylus allowed you to see through it for more accurate placement of a line, it was a bit big, and a bit awkward for writing with.

So this is what we have come up with. The oStylus DOT is designed primarily for handwriting and note-taking. It has the smallest possible contact pad -- hinged to give you a comfortable hand position. The combination of the small contact size (6 mm) and wire hinge connection means you have an excellent view of the screen compared to your finger or other styluses. The oStylus DOT complements the original oStylus which was primarily designed for drawing and painting Apps. Both are hand-assembled and finished in our studio from aluminum for the handles and stainless steel for the contact pads, with a vinyl surface for smooth contact with the screen. More information will be posted on the website oStylus.com,  where you can ask to be notified when they are available.